Economic Justice

NOW advocates for wide range of economic justice issues affecting women, from the glass ceiling to the sticky floor of poverty. These include welfare reform, livable wages, job discrimination, pay equity, housing, social security and pension reform, and much more.

Actions

President Obama called on the Department of Labor to require federal contractors to collect pay information broken down by race, gender, and ethnicity. Submit a comment today about why equal pay is important and in support of the new rule!

Representative Nita Lowey has introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act (H.R. 5024), dedicated to providing benefits to those who take time out of the workforce to care for loved ones. Urge your representative to become a cosponsor of this important bill!

Blog

2014 has been a busy year for NOW! Our grassroots activists have been hard at work, refusing to stay silent as conservatives attempt to deny women their rights. From Alaska to Louisiana, New York to Texas, Rhode Island to Missouri, activists across t… Read more »

2014 has been a rough year for women and feminists, to say the least. Between the Hobby Lobby decision and the results of the 2014 mid-term elections it is easy to feel discouraged. As the year wraps up, let’s look back on the good and the bad of the… Read more »

The holiday season is already upon us. This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, a holiday dedicated to celebrating everything we are grateful for in our lives. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which occur immediately afterwards, are devoted to snagging a g… Read more »

In a country where pregnant women are judged harsher and more negatively than others in the workplace, any law preventing discrimination against them is critical. Unfortunately, one such law is hanging in the balance of a Supreme Court decision on December 3rd.

News

Author Gillian B. White writes for The Atlantic: “According to the study, if women who fall below the poverty line had used contraception to the same extent that wealthy women did, their birth rate from unintended pregnancies would fall to 3.4 percent. If they had abortion rates that were similar to those of wealthy women, the birth rate for the group would fall to 4.9 percent.”

Author Caitlin Moscatello writes for Glamour: “Women without children in Ireland earn roughly 17 percent more than men, and childless women in Australia, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands earn slightly more than [male] workers. Those numbers drop dramatically, however, when women have kids; working moms make more than 10 percent less than men across the board.”

This Black Friday, and every day, NOW stands in solidarity with the Walmart Strikers. Walmart has an obligation to better its practices as the largest employer in the United States. NOW calls on the Walton family to respond the demands to pay workers $15/hour and provide consistent schedules.

Three-quarters of voters polled not only support abortion access but strongly link it to a woman’s financial stability and equality. Additionally, voters are more likely to vote for elected officials who support such policies. This is not a surprise to any who works in the reproductive rights and justice movement. Access to reproductive care is about the economy, stupid.

Resources

Social Security is the largest source of income for most older women – for a substantial number of senior women it is their only source of income. The chained CPI would cut thousands of dollars from their already modest Social Security retirement and disability benefits.

Women are disproportionately represented in the number of minimum wage workers. According to the National Women’s Law Center, nearly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers and nearly three-fourths of tipped minimum wage workers are women. Many of these women are employed in industries that are traditionally coded as “women’s work” and have traditionally been underpaid: child and elder care, housekeeping and food service.

The caregiver credit option is a responsible preventive measure—it would provide improved retirement security for millions of Americans–especially women, whom the caregiver role often falls upon–and recognize the valuable caregiving services that they provide for our country’s children and the growing elderly population.